Currently, cable and satellite television providers offer a variety of services for consumers to choose from for homes and businesses. Depending on the services offered, users may subscribe to receive cable services, satellite, cellular, and/or Internet services for example. A consumer may be required to use a set-top box (STB) or other decrypting device and/or a modem in order to receive a full array of subscribed to services. It is common practice for households and businesses to employ multiple STBs and/or smart television products as part of a cable or satellite programming television service. More recent service offerings allow for personal mobile device users to access some limited services. For example, some service providers offer the ability to watch cable television programming using a wireless network and a connected tablet or mobile phone.
With the current availability of affordable mobile devices, users now routinely employ multiple devices every day, such as tablet computers, laptops, and smart telephones as examples. Users have the ability to move from using one device to using some other device while using a home or business network. As part of protecting service integrity and preventing piracy, some type of authentication or validation is typically required when deploying a different device, such as requiring the user to select a service provider and/or input a valid username and password for example.
Requiring users to login before using each device can be frustrating, especially when attempting to use the limited controls typically available with a STB or television remote to login. Moreover, such limited controls may require an unreasonable amount of time to personalize a user viewing guide such as when adding favorite channels, recording programs, and setting parental controls. Users would prefer to use the rich controls and/or user interfaces of their mobile devices rather than the limited input controls currently available. Additionally, users would rather not have to re-enter authorization credentials each time they wish to access the services using different devices.